The big stink

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Monday, October 20, 2008

"The rule I've heard is that when you can smell it, it's in your nose,'' said Jeanne Potter, one of the owners of Danbury Overhead Door. "We used to take a walk outside. Some days we can't. It's so foul."

"It's awful," said Armond Delvecchio, an employee at United Rentals, one of the stores that line Federal Road across from the dump.

But the operation is noisy, with heavy equipment compacting the debris into the freight cars.

"It bangs 24-7 some days," Potter said.

The pounding creates a swirl of dust, which neighbors said can blow across the street, coating cars and windows and catching in people's throat.

The neighbors also agreed the smell of garbage from the AWD yard -- which is also the transfer station for much of the municipal solid waste in the area -- grows worse in the summer.

"It's nasty,'' said Potter, who said she had complained to James Galante, the former owner of AWD, who recently began serving an 87-month prison term for racketeering.

Dunleavy acknowledged that in dry weather there can be more dust from the operation. "We're trying to water it down," he said of the debris in the yard.

Dunleavy said the company may follow up on a suggestion the DEP made Tuesday and install a sprinkler system to keep the demolition debris wet.

And, he said, AWD is negotiating with the city about a number of projects at the transfer station site. One is to build some sort of barrier along Federal Road, to keep at least some of the dust from blowing across the street.

In the meantime, he said, people should call him at AWD with their complaints.